1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic imaging system and method, particularly, to an improved imaging system and method for displaying still images, and, more particularly, to an imaging system and method for improving the display of a high resolution still image through integration with a corresponding lower resolution video image.
2. Background and Objects of the Present Invention
With the rise of the consumer electronics industry over the past few decades, a variety electronic imaging systems of increasing complexity have emerged, e.g., video recorders, camcorders and the like. Video devices have recently become available that are able to not only capture moving or motion images, e.g., in National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) video format, but also capture a still image in a still image mode.
One difference between the two imaging modes, however, as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,343, is that whereas video has, for example, only 480 lines of image information per frame (compared to a 525 scan line format for NTSC television), a high resolution still image may require several times that resolution per frame. Consequently, the video operator must select a desired mode of imaging and resolution for a particular image, e.g., a sequence of low resolution NTSC images under (video) motion mode or a plurality of high resolution images under still image mode, as described in said U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,343. In other words, still images, being much more detailed, are processed separately, independent of and distinct from the video transfer.
One problem with the aforedescribed dual imaging mode approach currently used in the art, however, is that it may take a long time for a high resolution still image to be transmitted and displayed. Since video devices are designed primarily for capturing and storing lower resolution video images, the data paths for the video bit stream are designed to optimize video image throughput. Consequently, when the user switches to still image mode and captures an image, the much larger high resolution image takes longer to traverse those data paths, i.e., more time is required to process and display the more detailed image. This perceptional delay to the viewer is further accentuated by the nature of the display of such images, i.e., the still image is usually divided into a multiplicity of discrete image blocks or segments, which are sequentially processed and displayed. To the viewer, the still image is displayed slowly and in pieces.
Another and more serious drawback to conventional video systems employing a still image mode feature occurs whenever transmission errors damage some or all of the image segments during still picture transfer. Unlike a video imaging sequence where the effect of one bad image frame is masked by numerous contiguous image frames (occurring at the 30 frames per second NTSC standard rate), all or a portion of the "single frame" still image may be missing or severely distorted, creating other perceptional difficulties for the viewer.
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to provide an imaging system and method that overcomes or ameliorates the negative perceptional effects on a viewer of image display delays.
It is also an object of the present invention to ameliorate any negative viewer perceptions whenever still image transfer errors occur.